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MemoryOScent
Helpful Review
8
I know some people will envy me for this, but this one lasts forever on my skin...
This ones opens with a very mysterious accord. It combines the cold, bitter camphor with warm, sweet clove. Although it is clearly medicinal it feels very familiar and comforting. Perfectly balanced. These top notes are angular and feel like polar opposites. Ice and fire. I have an intense vision of a red ball floating in the air, covered in a thick layer of resin. Moving to he heart there is a fruity sweetness. But the use of fruit is almost ironic here. It is not sweet or cheerful. It serves to give substance to angular, volatile top notes. The base has nuances of patchouli and incense. Overall if I had to use one word to explain this it would be "ceremonial". Not something for everyday use but extremely comforting. It has body and substance. Very tactile.
What is truly remarkable about Pomegranate Noir is that it is the right perfume in the wrong line. Jo Malone colognes are light, simple, bright, even thin maybe. Definitely not ground-breaking. Pleasant but not remarkable. They are made explicitly to encourage layering with each other so they have to be simple. Longevity and sillage are not their strong suit. Pomegranate Noir is a masterpiece. Unique and memorable in every way. Adult, brash, moody, dark, mysterious but at the same time familiar, comforting and introverted. People who frequent the Jo Malone displays are probably shocked by this one and potential lovers will never go near the Jo Malone stands. If you read the official note listing you would think that this is another “everything but the kitchen sink” fragrance but nothing can prepare you for the unbelievable balance and depth of this composition. All I want to say here is “close your eyes and smell”! Everything smells better when labels are out of the way. Both literally and mentally. I was given the opportunity to experience this blind for a fellow bloggers blind sniffing annual post (La Gardenia nell'Occhiello) so this is my chinese portrait of this (as per the blind sniffing rules):
if it would be a colour? Red with depth and variation, like a glazed ornament.
if it'd be an animal? A cat: it moves slowly but powerfully. It imposes with its presence even when it is outside your view field!
if it'd be music? Dave Brubeck - Take Five: playfull but you know where it's going from the start.
if it'd be a place? It would be a jazz club: it is warm, but not quite comforting, you need to be on your toes.
if it'd be a cloth? A velvet coat: feels comfortable and soft but it is strictly "dress to impress".
if it'd be a movie/book? A Single Man: introspective but victorious.
if it'd be a personality (storical, pubblic,...)? It would be Charlotte Rampling: tiptoeing on the thin line between intellectuality and sinicism.
Notes from my nose: camphor, clove, pomegranate, patchouli, incense, cedar